Many children with specific language impairment (SLI) show impairments in discriminating auditorily presented stimuli. The present study investigates whether these discrimination problems are speech specific or of a general auditory nature. This was studied using a linguistic and nonlinguistic contrast that were matched for acoustic complexity in…

The principal aim of this paper is to contribute to the pursuit of evaluating pragmatic language competence in preschool years by observation-based data. Initially, the relations between age and language development measured as mean length of utterance (MLU) and three dialogue skills are described. The occurrences of "focus on the dialogue…

To date, most studies about English language learners (ELLs) in Structured English Immersion (SEI) classrooms in the state of Arizona have focused on ELLs' lack of English acquisition in one year, a time frame expected by Arizona policymakers, as well as their lagging academic progress. While these studies almost uniformly have surfaced…

California has embarked on a major new wave of curriculum reform with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the new English Language Development (ELD) standards, and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The adoption of the CCSS builds a legacy of standards-based education reform in California that began with the…

The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of parents and early childhood teachers in Norway regarding the benefits of child care to young children. Both positive and negative benefits were explored. In the autumn of 2009, 41 parents and 35 early childhood teachers of children aged 1.5 years or less, living in the city of Trondheim and…

This study aimed to determine the relationship between creativity on one hand and lexical reception and production knowledge of Iranian EFL students on the other hand. The data were collected using three tests: a creativity test (Torrance, 1990), the Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001), and the Productive Version of the…

Addressing needs of the increasing Latino population in the United States necessitates adequate support and resources for Extension educators. Even if a program has identified the need for resources and programming, how does it determine the specifics of that need and better understand the perceptions of educators engaged in programming? What is…

This study investigates adults' ability to change their phonetic systems in perception and production, specifically upon exposure to a new dialect in adulthood. It further addresses the relative importance of binary biological sex and socially constructed gender in predicting an individual's sociolinguistic variation. Perception and production…

This is a research report on children's use of multiple languages and the school curriculum. The study explored factors that trigger use of, and fluency in, multiple languages; and how fluency in multiple languages relates to thought processes and school performance. Advantages and disadvantages of using only one of the languages spoken were…

This study examined mother-child shared book reading behaviors before and after participation in a random-assignment responsive parenting intervention called Play and Learning Strategies (PALS) that occurred during infancy (PALS I), the toddler-preschool (PALS II) period, or both as compared with a developmental assessment (DAS) intervention (DAS…

Down syndrome (DS) is a genetic disorder resulting from chromosome 21 having three copies (trisomy 21). Cognitive functioning and anatomical features cause speech and language development delay (Kumin, 2003). Children with DS generally enjoy communication (Schoenbrodt, 2004), and respond well to interaction and social scripts. Music therapy has…

Studies have shown that distal family risk factors like poverty and maternal education are strongly related to children's early language development. Yet, few studies have examined these risk factors in combination with more proximal day-to-day experiences of children that might be critical to understanding variation in early language. Young…

Although conversations have been identified as an important means to promote young learners' language development, preschool children often have limited opportunities to be involved in complex conversations. This study examined preschool adaptations of Instructional Conversation, a small group discussion between teachers and children in which…

This article discusses why early and sustained vocabulary development is important for listening and reading comprehension development and presents findings from 8 studies implemented with children of mostly low socioeconomic status in settings from day care to first grade. Program interventions were based on learning new vocabulary developed out…

Purpose: This paper highlights the forensic implications of language impairment in 2 key (and overlapping) groups of young people: identified victims of maltreatment (abuse and/or neglect) and young offenders. Method: Two lines of research pertaining to oral language competence and young people's interface with the law are considered: 1 regarding…